The cherry trees are turning from white to green as the blossoms are giving way to the surprisingly robust new green leaves. As the blossoms start to fall there is a nice effect of the petals floating through the air like snowflakes. There’s a Japanese word for it, 花å¹é›ª hanafubuki, which means “flower blizzard”.
It is a really beautiful thing to see, almost as impressive as the blooming itself. A lady on the way to work commented to me out of the blue about how beautiful it was. The ground is sometimes carpeted with blossoms. Later I was talking with one of the groundskeepers of our school, and his perspective was great – he said that they were just something he’s going to have to sweep up soon. Practical guy.
I had a full load of classes today. My two first year classes had previously scheduled interruptions for the students to – according to the Japanese teacher – “have their organs examined”. Sounds like fun.
Although I had just a short time with the new classes, they both showed their personality pretty quickly. The first class was quiet, barely cracking a smile and looking completely miserable. They will be my most challenging class, I can tell. The second class was full of giggling girls who told me how handsome I was during the walk to the nurses room, who giggled at everything I did or said, and blushed when I looked at them. The boys, for their part, did some blushing too – they had some trouble answerign some pretty simple questions.
I had two second year classes as well. One of the classes is the top level students – all gathered in one room. The English teacher with me was Yamamoto sensei – he’s a little self-conscious about his English ability, and he was very nervous today. Once the class was over, he was very relaxed, though. It went much better than he expected, I guess.
Part of the lesson has the students walking around looking for people that meet certain criteria on a list that they have. For example, they have to find someone that lives in Futami, and have them sign the paper. I purposely put some tough ones in there so that they would have to come to me for a signature, but my plan backfired when nobody else in that class lived in Futami. I was like a celebrity being swamped for autographs – I tried to back away from the mob of students, until they finally cornered me. A taste of paparazzi attention, I guess.
Between classes the history teacher asked me to participate in a new curriculum that they are trying out this year. There are seven students taking an “International Understanding” course, and as part of that the history teacher wants me to attend several of their classes. Some of the classes are about Japanese cultural things like tea ceremony, and flower arranging. I’m going to try these things out with the students, side-by-side. Then, at the end of the year I will do two lectures on how it felt and my thoughts on experiencing Japanese culture as a foreigner. Part of the fun for the students will be able to not only try out some these things themselves, but watch me struggle through them.
It sounded like a lot of fun, so I said that I would be happy to do it. I’m really looking forward to my first class, at the end of this month. I’ll be participating in a tea ceremony, which is a pretty involved thing.
After school we had an ESS meeting, and most of the third year students came (but none of the new third years, hmm…) and both new first year students came. We did self-introductions, and the hardcore third year ESS members kept a running support group going with cheers and applause for the new students, and plenty of heckling for the veteran members. When I brought out the Peeps candies from America, everyone really liked them. I don’t really like eating them, but I had to ration them out to the students. I explained what Peeps meant, and made it into a little mini-English lesson.
One of the new students told me after the club meeting that she doesn’t like English very much, and does pretty poorly on her English exams. I was struck by that, and it reminded me of an article I read recently that talked a little bit about that phenomenon. Japanese students (and even adults) see a weakness in their learning or skills, and they work hard to bring that skill up. I can’t imagine somebody who hates English voluntarily seeking out a club or group to put extra time into it. It’s commendable, and maybe I should use a little bit of that strategy myself for Japanese study.
Last night Kuniko got back late so she went with a beef and vegetable stir fry. The benefit of getting home late is taking advantage of the cheaper meats that are marked down over time. She stole two big plates of beef for half price. I got my meat fix, and I was a very happy guy. Tonight she’s going to try out the recipe that she didn’t have time for yesterday. As they say at McDonald’s, I’m lovin’ it.
